Good morning everyone. Merry Christmas Eve and Happy Holidays!
News about the pinball and arcade hobbies is typically fairly slow this time of year, but I’ve been diligently collecting info for another Random Stuff article over the past several days, so here we go.
Let’s start with a real banger right off the bat, the gentlemen over at the Loserkid Pinball Podcast have been on a real roll with their guests lately. Coming on the heels of a strange, must-listen interview with American Pinball’s David Fix they just released a new interview with Stern Pinball’s CEO Seth Davis.
What I love about Loserkid’s interviews is they don’t just lob softballs at every guest, they ask the real questions that everyone wants to know. One of the big questions surrounding Stern right now is pricing.
Stern Pinball has held prices steady for the past two and a half years, a period over which inflation, while slowing has continued to rise. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation rose in the United States at a rate of 8.0% in 2022, 3.2% in 2023 and 2.7% over the past 12 months. That’s well over a 6% jump while Stern has kept prices flat.
I’m not a Stern apologist and I realize that prices rose at a rate greater than inflation prior to that period but I’m trying to look at things fairly. Having said that, pinball is not a necessity and the demand for it is not inelastic. Price increases on luxury goods like pinball machines have a much greater impact upon demand than they do on necessities.
That’s certainly the boat that I am in. With one son in college right now and another headed there soon, I personally don’t have the disposable income to gobble up pinball machines like I did when I could grab Stern Pros all day long for $5G. Pricing matters A LOT to me personally.
So after all that babble on my part, let’s get to the juicy stuff. Here’s what Seth Davis had to say about pinball pricing:
“I know people have been running around with rumors saying there's big price increases coming. I don't know where they're getting that one from. So I could say there's not an intent to raise price.
It may have to happen at some point, but there's no giant price increase on the horizon that we're planning to do. So that's the price increase question. For the market overall, yeah.”
From LoserKid Pinball Podcast: Ep 156: The Future of Pinball with Seth Davis, Dec 22, 2024
Stern is clearly very aware that prices increases are likely to have an impact upon demand for pinball and they are doing what they can to keep pricing at its current level. Having said that, putting on my economist hat if overall inflation in the U.S. picks up in 2025 as a result of labor shortages or a rise in tariffs, two items that have been talked about, I don’t see how Stern won’t have to raise prices at some point. We’ll see.
In the meantime, I still believe that Stern will reveal, or at least tease, its next cornerstone game before the end of 2024. Will we get a peek at Brian Eddy’s Dungeons and Dragons game this calendar year? I sure hope so. I can’t wait to see it!
Next up, we have Dutch Pinball, specifically its sub-brand Dutch Pinball Exclusive.
I LOVE reading old pinball magazines. Over the past several months, I’ve been buying and reading old issues of The PinGame Journal, RePlay Magazine, Game Room Magazine and Play Meter. I’ve found some amazing pinball history in them that I can’t wait to share with everyone here in 2025. I just bought a new scanner to facilitate that.
So, I loved it when Dutch Pinball shared a new article on the development of its current game Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland earlier this week. It was published in the Dutch Pinball Association’s magazine, “Spinner,” and it’s fantastic. Below is an English translation for everyone.
While I’m on the subject of pinball and arcade magazines, if anyone has any old issues of the aforementioned publications or the Stern Pinball Kickstarter book that they’d be willing to sell me for use in articles on this website I am very interested. Shoot me an e-mail at knapparcade@gmail.com. Thanks!
Yesterday, Stern Pinball announced that it has released a brand new Wizard Mode called “Wild Market Value” for its Elvira’s House of Horrors pin. It’s pretty awesome to see a game that was originally released in 2019 get a big new mode so many years later.
Also on the Stern front, the band Metallica is auctioning off an autographed Metallica Premium pinball machine to raise funds for its All Within My Hands Foundation’s efforts supporting the fight against hunger and efforts in workforce education.
Last up, let’s hop on over to the arcade side of things. My Arcade, the maker of mini arcade cabinets for classic games, recently announced that it has reached an agreement with SEGA of America to produce a new line of retro video game devices featuring some of the company’s most iconic brands, including:
Outrun
Golden Axe (My favorite)
Streets of Rage
Sonic the Hedgehog
Shinobi
That’s pretty awesome. My Arcade will share the first look at these new products at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which takes place January 7th through the 10th.
Man, I wish I could go to that show. Stern’s next cornerstone game will make its first public appearance there as well.
Well, that’s all I have for now, but I’m off from work this week so I’ll be sure to keep my ear to the ground for more interesting stuff to share.
I hope you all have a fantastic holiday!
P.S. I was serious about wanting old pinball and arcade industry magazines lol. If you have any that you’d be willing to part with definitely let me know.
